Electronic ballasts have significant advantages over inductive type ballasts known in the relevant art; including greater energy efficiency, smaller size, lower cost and lower component and maintenance costs. Many of the electronic ballasts allow for electrical programming of the lamp's various operating parameters by selecting components that provide an RC time constant of a proper frequency for the various types of the gas discharge lamps to be connected to the electronic ballasts.
The selected components are then hardwired to the electronic ballasts and are not changed for the life of the electronic ballast circuits. The criteria for selecting the proper resistors and capacitors are based on the lamp's manufacturer recommendations. The operating characteristics of the gas discharge lamps used in selecting the components are optimized by the manufactures for maximum energy efficiency for a new or “typical” lamp.
However, the operating characteristics for a given type of gas discharge lamp may vary among manufacturers, change over time as the lamps are used and vary according to their environmental conditions. A selected operating program for a new or “typical” gas discharge lamp may be deleterious to a lamp after a given amount of operating time which adversely impacts the life of the lamp, increases maintenance costs and downtime, and may increase hazardous waste generation as many gas discharge lamps contain sufficient quantities of mercury to require disposal as hazardous waste or otherwise require special handling for recycling purposes. Therefore, a simple mechanism to intelligently control the operating characteristics of a gas discharge lamp over time would be advantageous.